The world of arts:

Virgil: he immortalised Roman poetry

Gwen Herat

When Virgil wrote his immortal epic, The Aeneid, little did he imagine that it would not only immortalise his name but that of Rome's poetry. The hero in this epic, Aeneas was no superman, neither did he compare him to a super being because Virgil's faith in God superseded any hero of a saga.

He believed Rome's place in the world to have been a part of the divine plan of God. Aeneas was not merely the father of the nation but servant of destiny and a part of it. With those high thoughts he created exquisite passion for human pity. Hence, The Aeneid was born.

A colourful, spectacular icon of ancient Roman literature, Virgil sought to write in simple, beautiful language that Romans of his era were used to reading. He was a trusted friend of Augustus Caesar and along with another writer, Sallust, Virgil stood apart from them as a genius. Caesar and Sallust contributed little to the literature of their time but strangely, were very popular.

Virgil lived in Rome from 40 BC and was the son of a peasant and born near Mantua. His mother was the daughter of the person who employed his father and hence with her money, they were able to give Virgil a good education.

He travelled across to Verona, Milan and Rome. He was hampered with a curious slowing of his speech which made him shy and delicate in looks. He withdrew from crowds and noise and was less ambitious than his colleagues.

After a while, he returned to Mantua and wrote poetry. He always had the nagging idea that nature resisted man and that glory of human life lay in the opposing soul of nature. He argued with himself that God wanted man to rise and awake the slumbering universe to greater life. There were many such notions in Virgil's mind as he wrote.

While another colleague, Lucretius was a fatalist, Virgil was an evolutionist. While Lucretius argued that man was helpless in the hands of nature, Virgil insisted that man is nature's master.

In elevating Roman poetry, Virgil reduced the stature of Greek literature. So majestic was the sweep of his poems, especially The Aeneid, that it filled the country with new music and gave the Romans a power of words as Greece never knew before. Rome was able to capture the world with her power and new ideas and ideals that was to make Virgil immortal after his death. Not that the Greeks lacked their quality but lacked some one in the calibre of Virgil during the era.

However, the greatest names in literature belonged to the Greeks. There was Homer and his poems; the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and the immortal tragedies of Aeschylus. So we have to accept that the beginning of Roman literature are Greek. Rome was listless until Virgil took over when Rome lacked opulence and refinement in literature.

Greeks gave their alphabet to the Romans when Phythogoras established his monastery in Italy. Rome at that time was conscious of intellectual shortcomings and one would imagine how the shabby little Rome was able to produce an intellect like Virgil and others of high calibre such as Ovid, Horace, Cato, Terence, Livy, Cicero, Tacitus, Pliny etc. Literary figures such as them born before and after Virgil, still trail behind Virgil in popularity as he stand above the rest. He made universal language in Roman literature.

How did he do it? As much as he elevated poetry, he elevated mankind. He used beautiful language with a strange power of man to convey his words describing what eventually became his genius and for a shy solitary man raising Roman poetry to the level of the Greek, endeared him to all the generations of mankind. Even today when the name of Virgil is mentioned, there is an aura of reverence experienced.

Tales of the Romans and their poetry have much more romance though they lacked in substance. They had nothing called grammar and horrible writing until the Greeks gave them the alphabet.

Little is known about their dictions but as the Latin race, the Romans were rich in their apatite for song and dance which they celebrated at festivals for their mythological gods. They did have some literary compositions.

Came the BC era when writers and poets took upon themselves to enrich this talented nation to what it is today not only in literature but the arts. Today, Italy boasts of its rich cultural heritage that resulted in giving the world the best of writers, painters, singers, dancers, sculptors, craftsmen and above, the religion of the Roman Catholics.

(to be continued)

..................................

<< Artscope Main Page